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Touchnet, in collaboration with global cloud leader Zadara, has officially launched its Sovereign AI Edge Cloud infrastructure at the Digital Parks Africa (DPA) data centre, located in Samrand, Centurion,South Africa. This milestone marks a significant leap forward in advancing AI capabilities within Africa’s digital landscape.
Speaking at the launch, Touchnet CEO Charly Bahous highlighted why DPA was the ideal strategic partner for this rollout. “AI is central to Africa’s digital future, and Touchnet is committed to being a pioneer in this space. Achieving this requires energy resilience, security, and proven expertise — all of which DPA offers in abundance,” he said.
Digital Parks Africa, a trusted provider of colocation services across the continent, brings decades of experience to the table. “With over 34 years of combined data centre and IP expertise across our group, we know what works,” said Wiaan Vermaak, Group Chief Commercial Officer at DPA. “This partnership is built on knowledge, agility, and the ability to deliver.”
As an established cloud solutions provider, Touchnet is a key Zadara partner in the deployment of Sovereign AI Edge Cloud technologies across Africa. These advanced solutions are already in use across 24 countries, with more than 500 clouds and 250 partners globally.
Bahous expressed gratitude for the opportunity to tailor Zadara’s global platform for the African context. “It’s a privilege to adapt these best-in-class solutions to local market needs, with full support from Zadara.”
Sovereign AI solutions refer to infrastructure hosted within national borders, ensuring data remains locally processed — improving data sovereignty, reducing latency, and eliminating costly cross-border data transfers. This setup allows enterprises to build and manage Large Language Models (LLMs) and other AI tools securely, without reliance on public networks.
Zadara’s Sovereign AI offering, delivered through partners like Touchnet, encompasses a full-stack solution — hardware, software, support, installation, and more — built on GPU-powered cloud servers rather than standard computers. GPUs provide significantly enhanced processing power, making them ideal for the complex demands of AI, machine learning, and data-intensive workloads.
This deployment is expected to reshape how African businesses engage with emerging technologies. Zadara’s APAC and SEMEA CTO, Behnam Eliyahu, underscored the strategic intent during his keynote. “This launch is not just about infrastructure — it’s about unlocking innovation across Africa. By delivering GPU-as-a-Service, we’re enabling organisations to build and scale sophisticated AI models, render high-performance workloads, and process massive datasets with enterprise-grade reliability.”
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The initiative represents the combined strength of three industry leaders: Zadara’s global cloud infrastructure, Touchnet’s regional implementation expertise, and DPA’s agile, enterprise-grade data centre capabilities. Touchnet’s long-term vision is bold — Bahous aims to deploy 1,000 GPU-powered servers across Africa by the end of 2026. Such ambitions demand a data centre partner that can scale rapidly and adapt efficiently. “That’s why we chose DPA,” he concluded, “and we’re thrilled to be working alongside them on this transformative journey.”
This partnership positions Africa to not only participate in but lead key aspects of the global AI revolution.